Unable to find foreign customers for its new SS-26 tactical missile system (9M723K1 or Iskander), Russia decided to purchase 120 such systems for its own needs, just to keep it in production. Until now, Russia has not been able to purchase many of these missile systems for itself, despite the fact that they entered service five years ago. But now a lot more money is allocated for the purchase of weapons, and this is one of the things on which they are going to spend part of it.
Several Iskanders were used against Georgia in 2008. In the same year, Russia threatened to send several complexes to Kaliningrad as a way to threaten a new NATO missile defense system being built in Poland (to protect Europe from Iranian missiles). A year later, Russia decided not to send missiles to Kaliningrad because the US decided not to build a missile defense system in Eastern Europe.
Initially, Syria, Kuwait, South Korea, India, Iran, Malaysia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates expressed some interest in the Iskander. The export version of Iskander-E will have a shorter range (280 instead of 400 km) and less room for warhead maneuver. However, so far only Iran has expressed its readiness to acquire the complex, but this is also unlikely due to international sanctions limiting the supply of offensive weapons to Iran.
Russia originally planned to build at least five Iskander brigades (60 launchers, each with two missiles, as well as loaders, which could have been more than 150 missiles). Each 8x8 40-ton launcher carries two missiles and a crew of three. Iskander entered series production two years ago and only two brigades are believed to be in service. One of them was deployed near St. Petersburg, much to the horror of nearby Estonia. Six systems were built last year.
Russia's missile manufacturing capabilities have deteriorated sharply since the end of the Cold War in 1991. This is one of the reasons why the current Russian government makes so much noise about NATO's alleged conspiracy to encircle and subjugate Russia. The loss in the Cold War did not go unnoticed in Russia. Rather than forgetting and moving on, many Russians choose to recall and use the imagined evil intentions of their former Cold War enemies to explain flaws in Russian character.
Russia is threatening the deployment of Iskander in Kaliningrad due to its unique feature, which is that it is not a traditional ballistic missile. That is, it does not start straight up, leaves the atmosphere, and then returns down following a ballistic trajectory. Instead, Iskander remains in the atmosphere and follows a fairly flat trajectory. She is capable of evasive maneuvering and deploying false targets. This makes it more difficult for anti-missile systems to intercept it. Russia is purchasing a special version (Iskander-M) for its own armed forces. This version has a longer range (400 km) and has more countermeasures (to intercept). Russia does not provide detailed information on the system. She also stated that she can use Iskander to destroy American anti-missile systems as a preemptive strike if Russia wants to start a third world war for one reason or another. This threat of the Iskander deployment was mainly a publicity stunt.
Iskander's development began at the end of the Cold War. The first successful launch took place in 1996. The 4, 6-ton Iskander-M is powered by a solid rocket engine and has a range of 400 kilometers with a 710 kilogram (1,500 lb) warhead. The rocket can be stored for up to ten years. Russia sells various types of warheads, including cluster munitions, thermobaric (air-fuel explosion) and electromagnetic pulse (anti-radar and destructive to electronics in general). There is also a nuclear warhead that is not exported. Guidance is very accurate using GPS as well as infrared homing. The warhead deviates from the target within 10 meters (31 ft). Iskanders are transported on 40-ton 8x8 trucks, which are also the launch platform. There is also a forklift truck that carries two rockets.
Russia developed the solid-propellant Iskander to replace the SS-23 Cold War ballistic missile (which in turn replaced the SCUD). SS-23s were to be decommissioned and destroyed by 1991, according to the 1987 INF Treaty, which prohibits missiles with a range of 500 to 5300 kilometers. When financial problems slowed Iskander's development after the end of the Cold War, Russia remained dependent on shorter-range SS-21 missiles (120 km), along with some aging SCUDs. Russia used some of these old missiles against Chechen militants in the 1990s, along with several Iskanders. Iskander proved to be more effective, but Iskander cost more than a million dollars each, which is several times more than the SCUD.
